The invention is based on a fuel injection pump as defined hereinafter. Especially for self-igniting internal combustion engines, that is, Diesel engines, the fuel must be injected into the combustion chamber of the Diesel engine at high pressure. Such fuel injection pumps are either of the in-line injection pump type, made up of a number of individual pumping elements disposed in a row, in which a separate pumping element is associated with each combustion chamber of the Diesel engine, or else they are of the distributor injection pump type, which have a pumping element on which a distributor piston executes reciprocating and rotating movements and thereby delivers the fuel, which is under pressure, to individual distributor grooves on the jacket surface of the pump cylinders. In the case of the distributor injection pump, one distributor groove is associated with each combustion chamber of the Diesel engine, and the metered fuel proceeds by way of this distributor groove from the pumping element to the associated combustion chamber via an injection nozzle.
All the conventional injection pumps known thus far have an adjusting lever, which within a predetermined engine performance graph regulates the rpm of the Diesel engine linearly and in proportion to its deflection. Since the adjusting lever is actuated arbitrarily, for instance via a Bowden cable or a linkage, the degree to which the rpm governor intervenes in the metered fuel quantity is linearly dependent on the arbitrary actuation. In the low rpm operating range, abrupt changes in operating parameters, especially during the arbitrary actuation, have an unfavorable effect on the transient behavior of an overall system, such as a vehicle, by causing nonuniform surges of movement, generally known as "bucking" or jerking.